Redemption.

By Mandi 07/09/2012

Once upon a time (6 days ago) Craft Wars aired. And I got my butt kicked off. In my recap post I called the birdhouse that I presented to the judges the “Inbred 3rd Cousin” of the birdhouse in my mind.

I did a segment on Studio 5 today and showed off what I could do with an extra 10 minutes. (Actually it took a little longer than that because I hand painted the front. BUT. That is without Jilly by my side. And we all know that she is the real muscle of the operation.)

Just to remind you, this is what the birdhouse from the show looked like:

And with a little paint and a few more minutes this is what it would have looked like.

Craft Wars BirdhouseBirdhouse

Still not my FAVORITE project, but much better.

Here is the Studio 5 video if you want to watch

If you came to the party you can link up your posts and recipes at Bridgey Widgey now (I will be posting mine tomorrow!!)

Love  Your  Guts,  Mandi

57 thoughts on “Redemption.”

  1. I never lost my faith in you girl. Love it. Totally cute. You would have won. Ya got robbed! Ok, I like the concept of the show Craft Wars, but a few things need to be tweaked. One of them being the time limit. One hour?! What the crap are you going to do with one stinking hour? Browse Pinterest? Uhhh play around online? Certainly not create a winning crafty item on a tv show. They should give you like a day. Or at least 4-5 hours so you can actually show off some of your talent & not just throw a bunch of junk together. Seriously…the show is disappointing to me & I’m not very interested in watching anymore.

  2. My kids and I looove watching Craft Wars and it was so.much.fun. seeing “Mandi!” on the program – Felt like 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon 🙂 I thought your idea was super awesome!

  3. Redemption is right! Your bird house is adorable and so are you. I was so excited to watch you on the episode and I felt so bad for you! Great job Mandi!!

  4. Although I had a wtf moment when I saw your original birdhouse, this looks amazing. The painted detail is great. I still think you are revolutionary and I love your creativity!

  5. I wondered about how much time craft wars actually gave everyone. If it truly was a rush, rush to the end product. I think you did amazing. I love your redemption piece. Very cute!

  6. Sorry you didn’t win, I thought this would be a great show but after watching two episodes, I decided that was enough. Won’t be watching anymore.

  7. Mandi, yours was better than the other two even BEFORE you painted it. I mean c’mon…they said it should be “functional.” Foam core???? Playing cards??? Are you stinkin kidding me? Those judges are total nut jobs. You totally got robbed. Not sure if that makes you feel better or not but I just had to vent. 🙂

  8. Love it painted! When my husband and I watched the show that is exactly what we thought would have won it for you – painting each stripe! Looks cute.

  9. I knew where you were going with this and I think you got rooked…. That foam board birdhouse sure wasn’t weatherproof!
    Your finished birdhouse is great, any bird would be proud to live in there!
    Susan
    Homeroad

  10. I love this so much, I’m pinning it to make one like it. I just love it! Sorry that you got robbed- if you look at most crafts mid-process it will often look peculiar.

    I love your vision and the ultimately redeeming results!

  11. Amazing…I had a feeling about this birdhouse! Its absolutely gorgeous! Sorry you didn’t win, but I am super excited about having a new craft blogger to follow!!!

  12. sorry you didn’t win on the show, this looks fabulous with the paint! For your crafty challenge with your friends…sorry, my vote goes to Margot’s this time.

  13. Girl, it’s time to move on with grace. We can’t all win everything. You’re sounding a bit like a bad sport 🙁

    1. No misery, just honesty. I think she’s very talented, but there’s a lot to say about losing with your head held high.

  14. Thrilled to see it finished! Great redemption. I’m loving this after the show challenge series everyone is doing. Tweet this is a fun little addition, too.

  15. I so thought your house was awsome and was hoping you would get time to paint the whole thing white. You were robbed!

  16. I agree with the first poster about more time. All of these shows need to give more time to to complete the project, not hours and hours, but at least a reasonable amount of time. For example: I’m a hairstylist and our chief complaint about Shear Genius was, no one wants to see crappy work and some of the challenges are seriously impossible to finish given the time it takes just to process some of the colors or the application technique itself. I’ve noticed the same thing with Design Star and they seemed to have tweeked it a bit this season to give the contestants a little more time to actually turn out some decent work. Even with extra time you can still ‘see’ the people who have more time management skills, while seeing some awesome cool stuff from the others. It’s like the difference between a 15 minute Super Cut hair cut and the 45-60 minute ones I do. 😉

  17. I watched Craft Wars last night (It was taped) and I couldn’t believe you were eliminated! There is no way the other two bird houses could withstand the elements. The guys bird house was so boring, how was that a craft? I love what you did with the bird house after the show, I also loved it on the show but the colors(paint) you used made it PERFECT!!
    Love your stuff!!
    Jacque

  18. Hey there Miss Mandi! This is Nicki, the eldest of the “Sisters!” that came your awesome party!! I sent you an email of some of the projects I have done with my Command sprayer. I am anxiously awaiting your response!!!! Thanks again for an awesome party and being such a doll!!

  19. I didn’t think you should have been eliminated in round 1, as you clearly used the greatest amount and most widest variety of junk drawer items. I love the finished product.

  20. U ROCKED IT Ms. Mandi-G!!! It’s 1:00 am, I just finished watching Craft Wars for the first time (yeah, it comes on at 12:00 pm in California) and I just KNEW you had won the 1st round hands down WITHOUT painting the bird house because you took the most drawer junk and applied it creatively as opposed to the other two contestants. Anyway, I’m glad I watched the show because now I have your blog to read and be inspired to dream-create-live! PS…what was the round rope item you were gluing that was edited out???

  21. if you only had a few more minutes you would have taken that show!! lol i think the redemption craft bird house is stellar! good for you for making it a positive experience!

  22. I quit watching after they gave you the boot.In my-evidently unlearned-opinion you built the only bird house worth having.And I actually liked it more before you painted it.Birds would love it-and my insane squirrels would think they were in DisneyLand.Please note I live in swampy So GA so my tastes in all things crafty might be suspect.

  23. I quit watching after they gave you the boot.In my-evidently unlearned-opinion you built the only bird house worth having.And I actually liked it more before you painted it.Birds would love it-and my insane squirrels would think they were in DisneyLand.Please note I live in swampy So GA so my tastes in all things crafty might be suspect.

  24. I made my mom watch this with me today on the DVR…My mom was like you totally should have won! Do you ever think about going on Design Star? That would be a fun but scary challenge but I’m sure you would be perfect for. Maybe there should be a show called Blog Wars? Love the new and improve bird house!

  25. I totally saw where you were going before. It is amazing what 10 more mins can do. It is so cute all done. I always think it is funny when the judges are all like, “you should have done this and this and this” and all I can think is. “umm, you gave them an hour. pretty sure what you just told them to do would have taken more that an hour.” And then the “master crafts” are not all so masterful. You could have kicked at the master craft.

Leave a comment!

Keep the conversation going! Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.